Oh, the life of a plein air artist! Since most events have been on this year, I have done quite a few plein air competitions. I’ve gone to New Harmony, Indiana, Cedarburg, and Jefferson in Wisconsin, and gone many times to Spirit Lake preserve for my ARTservancy residency. So adventures you ask? You bet!
I’ll start with the mildest one: whilst painting this nocturne in New Harmony (below), I was just about finished (around 10:30 pm) when suddenly all the lights went off. Fortunately, I didn’t have much left to do, and I had enough mental notes to finish. I was curious though because I had passed this house later than 11 on other nights and the lights had been on. The only thing I can think of, is that the occupants saw a crazy person across the street scoping them out and decided to thwart him by going dark.
Now for a good one: Last week was the “Paint Cedarburg” event in Cedarburg, WI. It’s the largest painting event with about 150 artists. The show usually has around 500 paintings. By some miracle, I actually won 2nd place in 2017. Anyway, this year was full of adventure. I was painting on the riverbank at Cedar Creek (more like a river) when my new painting umbrella came detached from a wind gust and blew into the river. It being a new and expensive piece of equipment, my first reaction was to save it. So I scrambled down the riverbank and stepped into the water. I am 6 feet 6 inches tall, and the water came up to my waist. I managed to get the umbrella and scramble up a very slippery riverbank and back to my easel. This is when I discovered that my phone and wallet had been in the pockets of my shorts. I sat down soggily and finished my painting, whereupon I left for home to get ready for a wedding gig. My phone was fine and I set the contents of my wallet out to dry along with my chair.
The next day I wanted to get to Cedarburg early, so packed up and drove the half-hour drive to Cedarburg. As I entered town I realized that I had left my drying chair at home. No worries, I could still paint standing. I finished a picture and was hungry for lunch so I reached for my wallet. No wallet, no lunch. Drive home. Along the way, I received a phone call from my wife Julie. These are her words verbatim: “Did you know that you left your wallet in the refrigerator?” needless to say, I did not. To this day, I have no idea why or how my wallet was in the fridge, but at least I did have plenty of cold cash!
The next week I was in Jefferson, WI for another plein air competition. It was a very hot week and so I thought that hiking into the woods and setting up by a riverbank seemed like a nice idea. I was, after all, used to taking dips in rivers so if I became too hot (which I did) I figured a short wade into the river might be a nice cooling break. I am not a stupid person. Ask anyone. What then, after an unexpected “dip” in a deep river the week before made me think this would be a good idea? Let me spoil your suspense by saying that this time I didn’t take a dip. Rather, I stepped onto the riverbank (which was covered in “vegetation”) on my WAY to take a wade in. It turned out the “vegetation” lay upon a bed of what can only be described as “quick-mud”. It took only one step to sink into a thick gooey muck up to my knee. Stuck upon one foot, I had no alternative but to put down the other foot. Twisting myself back away from the river to attempt to save myself, I did manage to keep one sandal on my foot, the other one about three feet down and lost to the muck. I hobbled back to my painting site, packed up and drove back to my campground, vowing to stay away from rivers for the immediate future. I did break my vow later that summer, but so far no more river adventures have come my way. Knock on wood!
